UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake was in Lebanon to focus the world's attention on Syrian refugee children, specifically on their unfulfilled right to an education. With nearly 400,000 school-aged Syrian refugee children in Lebanon, many will not be given an education unless more is done to support them. UNICEF

Anton Katz, the Chair of the Working Group on the use of mercenaries said that foreign fighters in Syria would not fit the definition of mercenary under international law but that they are "contributing to the entire destabilization of the country." UNTV

Global leaders have pledged over $8 billion to boost economic growth in the Sahel region ofWest Africaas they begin a United Nations-led visit to an area that has suffered for decades from devastating poverty, hunger and instability. FILE

Chinese Ambassador Liu Jieyi today (4 November) expressed concerned at the current pace of negotiations in convening the Geneva II peace conference on Syria and said that "things are not progressing as smoothly as we would wish" urging for “efforts to be made with greater determination” to persuade the parties to go to the negotiating [...]

The Head of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous visited today (4 November) the town of Tessalit in northern Mali, where the UN peacekeepers from Chad are providing security to the population. Their living conditions are however very difficult in this impoverished region. MINUSMA